How I spent my Birthday Weekend
By NorCal22Gal
Place: Sacramento Valley Shooting Center, Sacramento, CA
When: August 21 & 22
Weather: Just about perfect. Mid to upper 80's.
34 students showed up on Saturday for a day of marksmanship and history.
We had 11 youth on the line , some of whom had never even fired a rifle or handled one before Saturday. We had a family that was 3 generations, grandfather, dad and two sons. We also had 3 active duty Army National Guard soldiers. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.
Shot the first Red Coat.
We got everyone up and going and turned on the fire hose of knowledge.
Saw a couple familiar faces...welcome back Darryl and Rachel.
These were very attentive students. Some were even taking notes!!!! Saw group sizes start to shrink by mid-morning.
Lunch time and the Three Strikes....Eaglescouter did a very nice short pre-strike history, then BaldDragn and I told the strikes....was it just me or did it get very quiet.......
Back at the fire hose after lunch. Late afternoon saw our only AQT....Darryl brought his son Chris with him. Chris stepped up to the challenge and showed that he knew what he was about. Posted a nice 225!!!! Great Job Chris!!!!
Finished the day's shooting with a Red Coat.
I got to award my very first Rifleman Patch to Chris.
Finished up with the Benedicton. BaldDragn passed out some constitutions.
Then I got a surprise Birthday present....my VERY OWN GREEN SHOOT BOSS HAT!!!!! This was my second Shoot Boss in Training shoot. Wasn't expecting it now....but ^:)^
After the Students went home all the Instructors returned to the Dragon's Lair for a BBQ and cupcakes courtesy of Jules!!!! THANKS!!
Sunday was a bit warmer than Saturday.
21 students joined us for Sunday.
Safety Briefing, Red Coat and then turned on the hose again. Lots of improvement.
We got in an AQT before lunch...did a sneaky on them...... We posted the AQT, then we reviewed transition stages and standing before we shot each stage. Fully timed and Instructed.
We ended up with 2 Riflemen. Darryl who wasn't going to score it because he didn't think it was a "real one" (we never said it wasn't!), and as a result was in his bubble very nicely, scored a 213. (He followed it up later in the afternoon with a 210!) Nice work Darryl!!!!! The second Rifleman was Eddie with a 215 (I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Couldn't find where I wrote it down :-[)
Lunch time. BaldDragn, Eaglescouter, and L!ppen shared the Dangerous Old Men. Jules, 30 Cal Sleeper and I shared some Dangerous, Determined Dames....
After lunch it was on to the AQT marathon!! Rachel turned in a 219 late in the afternoon. This was her 3rd Appleseed.
There were lots of folks in the upper 170's 180's. The National Guards were knocking on the door. They will be back with friends.... Steve and Jason said they will be back and bring their wives!!!
Final Red Coat
Ended the day awarding 3 Riflemen patches....well 2 men and 1 woman. Darryl and Rachel both decided to step up and take the orange hat!! Welcome to the family.
Final benediction...and there ends another awesome Appleseed.
And that's how I spent my Birthday weekend.
P.S. Please post pictures if you took any.
Ok...Tired brain syndrome has kicked in.....GG...it was great to see you at a Sacramento Appleseed..wish you could have stayed both days.!!!
Also..I did the Wedding Portrait that Never Happened...Lydia Mulliken's story. Yes Even Star I will get it to you. I promise.
I heard there wasn't many dry eyes at the end of it...Eaglescouter said there must have been lots of dust in people's eyes. It did turn out well. Lydia's story is in the back part of Paul Revere's ride. I heard it the first time at the all ladies' shoot in Glen Helen. SavageShooter gave me the info. I told it as if I was Lydia. Had instructors as my family and Rev. Emerson. It'll be better next time.
Well done, NorCal22Gal, on the Green Hat! Well deserved and earned!
Sorry to have missed this weekend. Was handling "household chores" before heading to Wash DC this week after a very tedious schedule of people's work without a budget. (ugh)
Great to hear of three more orange hats! Woo Hoo!
Hope to see y'all in Sept!
-nukechaser
Congrats Laurie!
No looking back now...
You will look good in a green shoot boss hat.
It will contrast nicely with your pink face and arms!!! :cool2:
Congrats NorCal22Gal! I hear you do an excellent job as Shoot Boss! Keep up the good work.
AAR Take Two: Simple Machines timed out on me, and I am feeling kinda Scrappy >:(
When I looked a the pre reg numbers, I got rather nervous. At the time we didn't have enough instructors or IIT's signed up. Many many thanks to 30 Cal Sleeper for giving up your weekend and coming out. Hambone and L!ppen came up from Stockton, and I signed up to Line Boss. I wanted Nor Cal 22 Gal's SBIT to go smoothly. Those 3 extra bodies made all the difference in the world. Thank you all for stepping up. The success of our students was a direct result of your selflessness.
As I was checking folks in at Admin, I was really pleased to see 3 Army National Guard soldiers in uniform. Even more interesting, their former Sergeant Major they had served under in Iraq was standing in front of them. Small world.
The left line had a large number of students who had never laid eyes on a rifle before. BaldDragn and 30 Cal Sleeper, you rock. I was glad to Line Boss at that point. :bow:
We got our new IIT's in the demo loop( pun not intended) and 24Volts, Polygunner, L!ppen, Hambone, did a great job. They are well on their way to a Red hat.
By the end of Saturday we had Chris shoot his Rifleman. His dad, Darryl, was one proud parent!
Come Sunday, some of the Saturday only folks actually came back, and as I was packing up the Admin table and heading down to the Range Eddy and Kristy rolled in. I got them checked in and we got the day rolling.
L!ppen and 24 Volts took over Line Bossing in the afternoon so I could spend some one on one time with two extraordinary children. Very bright, very busy. Just my style. I worked with Caspian, who is 8 and Leo (12) on trigger and muzzle control. By the end of Sunday, Leo got his scores up to 152. The boys came with dad (John, who shot his Rifleman at Castro Valley) and Grampa, who was visiting from Massachusetts.
Rachel ( sister of 24 Votz) has been to 3 Seeds, but was not able to stay an entire weekend until this one. She shot her Rifleman, and it was hard for us to keep it on the down low, as we passed around her target for the Instructors to sign. Then Darryl made his, and then Eddy made his Rifleman as well. Kristy, you are a good woman. She sat in the sun and prepped his mags all day. She was a lovely shade of crimson when the day was over.
We had lots of young ladies on the line this weekend. We met Kimmy and her dad Bill at the Reno Gun Show, and Kimmy got to try out several rifles to see what was working for her. I see a Rifleman down the road with Kimmy. She has a great support system at home, and it's just a matter of time.
Saturday night we had a bar b que for Instructors meal, and it was also Laurie's birthday. We all donned party hats, and celebrated her newly earned Green Shoot Boss hat. You go Girlfriend, I am right behind you by a few months.
As always, a great weekend. Four Rifleman, and two of them stepped up for an Orange Hat. Thank you Darryl and Rachel. We are going to have an awesome core group. I may have to do add on an addition or get a trailer to house the Instructors who come to staff the events, we are getting so many.
What a wonderful problem.
love Jules
ps: I am posting this first, and will add the pics after, as the first time it dumped the whole business. :wb:
It dumped me twice. No comment, other than I may change my screen name.
Will attempt pictures. Third time is a charm they say, whoever THEY are.
Scrappy
batch 2, this seems to overcome the evil Simple Machines
pfft, it's still giving me grief
on the home stretch now..
almost there
Ta Da! ^:)^
Great Job NorCal22Gal !! again congrats on the green hat. I had a great time and look forward to the next appleseed! and working with all the intructors.
Jules great job on the pictures!
24Volts
3 generations had a great time! Thanks to all, and especially thanks to Jules for keeping an extra eye on my boys.
Huge group effort here!
Sacramento is taking off. While we were busy promoting other areas this month our IITs were out promoting this event. Last year despite all my efforts I was only able to get 11 students on the line in August, this year in keeping with the rest of the growth in CA, we had three times that. Not a great time to have two of the ranges we normally use shut down for repairs, but with help from Larry the assistant manager at Sacramento Valley Shooting Center (SacValley.org) we managed to get enough room on the one range to fit everybody in.
GGlovesguns came from Reno and stayed with us so she could work on her marksmanship. She's so busy doing 7th step work she hadn't had as much time as she'd liked for the first six. Come on back any time GG and I'm sure we'll see you up there soon.
First person to show up was 3Huzzas. It was clear he meant business this weekend and he proved that point by putting up back to back Rifleman scores and taking a new orange hat to boot. He also showed he understood all 7 steps of taking a shot by bringing his son with him and Chris shot his Rifleman score on his first AQT!
It was good to see our men in uniform show up next, followed shortly, and completely by coincidence, by their previous senior enlisted and his family.
I split most of my time Saturday watching over our new Green Hat, NorCal22Gal, and working with Rob's family along with 30 Cal Sleeper. All of us were challenged by a steep learning curve but with the spirit of Riflemen all persevered.
Eaglescouter, NorCal22Gal, and I delivered the history on Saturday and as usual I talked the longest, but then that's what I do best.
Once we finished up instruction we had time for one AQT and the Redcoat before quiet hours shut us down. NorCal22Gal and I gave the benediction and we wrapped up Saturday with the instructors stopping at the house for a bit of a birthday party, BBQ, and an AAR. If that's not a full day I don't know what is.
More on Sunday in a bit...
Wow!
Thank you for persevering with the photos scrappy! Brings back memories. And seeing three generations on the line is what really makes everything we do so worth it.
I'm really looking forward to seeing Sacramento again in Oct. Hopefully I can put some people, faces, and voices to all these new names up there.
And congratulations on the Green Hat Laurie, maybe I can get to shoot at your range sometime, you guys can check me out for that KD stuff. ;)
Cheers
V
Thanks V!
It was the best birthday ever!!!
And you are all welcome up here at the range in Red Bluff.
See ya in October.
Laurie
I am currently feeling Jules' pain with regard to little machines...I, too, will have to post several times to get all my pictures in! What great weather! Such better than the 104 temps we had last month. Those easy-ups sure do help. Thanks to all of the instructors and shooters for making it such a great weekend. I truly enjoy all the people with whom I get to share my weekend. Such a joy. God bless America!
here are more pics...
and more...
last set...I promise!
The sprit of the founders is alive and well in Sacramento O0
Congratulations to new Rifleman O0 Welcome aboard IITs ^5
Nice hat Norcal22gal ;D Congratulations on your earned promoton . Happy Birthday too ;D
Glad you persisted with the pics Lisa 8) We enjoyed them
JA